Kenya Airways losses licence from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency
Business Insider Africa gathered that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) withdrew the licence during a recent certification audit of the airline.
The EASA had requested for Kenya Airways’ temperature control device in line with European Union standards. But the airline failed to provide it.
Reacting to the licence revocation, Kenya Airways’ Technical Director, Gilbert Bett, explained that the airline wasn’t aware it was required to have temperature controls in place. He however added that now that the company has been made aware, it will work towards making a provision for the device.
“As you may know we are in the tropics and our manuals do not require us to have temperature controls such as those in Europe where there are extremes. We are, however, working on compliance,” Business Daily quoted him to have said.
Typically, the implication of a licence revocation such as this would have been revenue losses for Kenya Airways, due to inability to carry out maintenance on EU-registered airlines in the meantime. However, as Mr Bett clarified:
“There is no revenue loss as there is no aircraft under maintenance that requires EASA certification. We do not have any European-registered aircraft under maintenance.”
The EASA specialises in regulating and certifying airlines either operating in the European Union or wishing to carry out maintenance for EU-registered carriers. This is why it had granted Kenya Airways a licence that allows it to maintain UK-registered aircraft.
Do note that Kenya Airways emphasised that it has always been compliant with regulators and certification agencies; until now.
